Microsoft announced Windows Azure services for Japan last year, today Microsoft announced that Windows Azure in Japan East (Saitama Prefecture) and Japan West (Osaka Prefecture), will be generally available later Tuesday. Microsoft highlighted that fact that storage usage for Windows Azure has grown 10x in the last 15 months in Japan along and this Azure Services availability in Japan will serve the purpose well for these customers.

Japan’s cloud market has grown considerably in the last few years and this growth is only expected to increase, with the projected 2014 forecast estimated at around $1.6 billion, according to IDC. These new regions will help fulfill the current and future needs of our cloud customers with secure and highly available services that help them grow their business. In addition, they provide local customers the ability to achieve data residency and realize data recovery scenarios, as data will be replicated between the two regions.

Building an enterprise class cloud infrastructure that exceeds our customers’ expectations is our ultimate goal. At Microsoft, we are making this goal real by bringing a deep enterprise legacy to our customers worldwide. We have already invested more than $15 billion in our cloud infrastructure, providing more than 200 cloud services to more than 1 billion customers in 90 markets around the world. Now, we are furthering our commitment to grow our cloud business and deliver a consistent experience across Windows Azure, partner-built and on-premises clouds.